LibGuides: Law: Referencing

OSCOLA Referencing Style

OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) is the referencing style used by the School of Law at the University of Dundee. The OSCOLA style of referencing is unique to legal disciplines and utilises a footnote system, rather than including citations in the body of the text. It has been designed to allow for the clear identification of legal materials, which can take the form of a variety of primary sources (for example cases and legislation) and secondary sources (for example textbooks, journal articles and websites).

This LibGuide will provide you with links to a number of resources which will help you understand the rules and format of OSCOLA referencing. You can also refer back to these resources when writing if you need to check the referencing protocol for a specific resource type.

OSCOLA Guides

The following guides provide information on how to reference using OSCOLA, including examples.

OSCOLA Fourth Edition
The full OSCOLA referencing style guide provides detailed information on how to reference a plethora of legal materials. This is the source and most authoritative guide on the OSCOLA style.
OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide
This quick guide provides examples for how to reference the most commonly used legal resources.
OSCOLA Citing International Law Sources
This guide specifically covers the referencing of international legal source such as treaties, international case law and documentation from international organisations e.g. United Nations.
OSCOLA FAQs
Frequently asked questions, including information on sources not addressed in the OSCOLA main style guide e.g. YouTube videos.
University of Liverpool OSCOLA Quick Guide
This guide produced by the University of Liverpool provides clear advice on OSCOLA referencing.

Cite them Right

For more help with referencing check out the online resource Cite Them Right Online, which provides advice, tutorials and examples of how to reference correctly.

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Online referencing support.

OSCOLA Training Resources

Law Port: Post Graduate Online Research Training
This free online module from the Universty of London Institute of Advanced Legal Studies provides comprehensive training in using OSCOLA.

Reference Management Software

There are a number of different reference management software options available to help you collect, store and organise your references including:

Free versions are available for all of these reference management softwares, however the University of Dundee supports the full version of EndNote and can provide you with a licence key to download this to your computer. See our website for more information.

The Library provides regular training sessions on using EndNote and have provided information on how to get started in our EndNote LibGuide:

EndNote (reference management software)
by Scott McGregor Last Updated Nov 4, 2024 6336 views this year

If using EndNote with the OSCOLA referencing style there are a number of manual edits which need to be made to references as EndNote cannot automate certain functions such as different formatting in footnotes vs bibliography, abbreviating subsequent citations, and adding legal-specific sources such as legislation and cases. The below resources will help you to make this adjustments however:

Using OSCOLA with EndNote 20 - YouTube Playlist

University of Oxford OSCOLA styles for EndNote, Latek, Refworks and Zotero
Oxford University have provided OSCOLA style files for the most common reference management software, including EndNote, along with advice on how to use these.